BassMent
Well-known member
Let me start by saying the wiring in my apartment is a joke. The house is 100+ years old and very charming, but there's no grounding (there are grounded outlets, but the grounding screws are attached to nothing). If we turn on the steam iron and the hair dryer at the same time, we trip the breaker. So of course, amplified instruments are prone to buzzing like a swarm of angry hornets.
I have a SR5 HP, and it's always amazed me that this bass exhibits absolutely no buzzing problems, either in my home or on any stage I regularly play on. I wouldn't expect the piezo to buzz (it doesn't), but when I turn the blend to 100% magnetic pup, I still have no problems at all with 60-cycle hum. It's dead quiet in the full forward and full backward toggle positions, and the middle position has just a bit of buzz.
I recently purchased a Sterling HH, and with this bass I am hearing a lot of 60-cycle buzz. Toggle position has no effect on the amount of hum, and touching the strings or bridge makes no difference at all. It's not as bad as my Warwick with passive J-style pups, but it's pretty annoying. I can mitigate it by shifting positions on the couch, as it seems to be sensitive to what direction the bass is facing.
I bought the Sterling used from a highly-rated TB member, who told me that it had just come back from EB where they replaced the neck pup. This is clearly the case, as the neck pup is visibly cleaner than the bridge pup. The seller said that EB gave the bass a complete once-over and declared everything in as-new condition (it is a totally clean bass... you have to look really hard to see any signs that it's ever been played).
So my question is... is the buzz problem inherent in the HH configuration? If so, what's the magic mojo in the Stingray HP configuration that makes it so deadly quiet? I assumed that "humbucker" means "humbucker" no matter whether you have one or two of them on the bass. But the Sterling is clearly not bucking the hum as efficiently as the Stingray.
What gives?
I have a SR5 HP, and it's always amazed me that this bass exhibits absolutely no buzzing problems, either in my home or on any stage I regularly play on. I wouldn't expect the piezo to buzz (it doesn't), but when I turn the blend to 100% magnetic pup, I still have no problems at all with 60-cycle hum. It's dead quiet in the full forward and full backward toggle positions, and the middle position has just a bit of buzz.
I recently purchased a Sterling HH, and with this bass I am hearing a lot of 60-cycle buzz. Toggle position has no effect on the amount of hum, and touching the strings or bridge makes no difference at all. It's not as bad as my Warwick with passive J-style pups, but it's pretty annoying. I can mitigate it by shifting positions on the couch, as it seems to be sensitive to what direction the bass is facing.
I bought the Sterling used from a highly-rated TB member, who told me that it had just come back from EB where they replaced the neck pup. This is clearly the case, as the neck pup is visibly cleaner than the bridge pup. The seller said that EB gave the bass a complete once-over and declared everything in as-new condition (it is a totally clean bass... you have to look really hard to see any signs that it's ever been played).
So my question is... is the buzz problem inherent in the HH configuration? If so, what's the magic mojo in the Stingray HP configuration that makes it so deadly quiet? I assumed that "humbucker" means "humbucker" no matter whether you have one or two of them on the bass. But the Sterling is clearly not bucking the hum as efficiently as the Stingray.
What gives?
